Baby carriage

ABSTRACT

A baby carriage body is provided with see-through means and means for selectively covering said see-through means. Such covering may be accomplished, for example, by a tiltable hood of opaque material. The wall of the carriage body may be hollow and inflatable.

United States Patent Gesslein 1 Nov. 11, 1975 [5 1 BABY CARRIAGE 2645.502 7/1953 C6110 C1111 280747.38

Y 2 823.925 2/1958 Withers [76] Imemor- Georg Llchtenfels- 2.971 7962/1961 MO1'\11B[11] 296/28 B 8631 Mannsgefeutha 3.575.461 4/1971 0610mm]et 111 296/28 B [221 Filedl 1973 FORE1GN PATENTS OR APPLICATIONS {21]App]. N0.: 419,408 451.720 5/1968 Switzerland 1.069.226 2 1954 F 1280/4738 Related Apphcatlo" Dam 1.527.062 4/1967 296/28 13 [62] Divisionof Ser. N6. 188.846. Oct. 13. 1971. Put. NO. 1.909.653 9/1970 Germzmy296/28 B 3.799.606. 75.707 3/1953 Denmark 296/78 A 1 1 ForeignApplication Priority a Primary E.\-umm@1- R6ben J. Spar Oct. 14. 1970German 703799 [U] Assistant E\z1/111'11e/'D nz11d W. Underwood July 14,1971 Germany 2135185 Altar/1e Agent, or Firm-W0lfgang G. Fusse [52] US.Cl. 296/28 B; 280/4738; 296/78 A 57 ABSTRACT [51] Int. Cl. B62D 29/04[58 Field Of Search 296/1 B. 28 B. 78 R, 78 A, A bubf Carnage y 1s pr1ded 6- 11 see-through 296 10; 280/4738; 5/93 R, 94, 97 means and meansfor seleemely c0\er1ng sz11c1 seethrough means. Such covermg may beuccompllshed. [56] References Cited F 9 f fl g g gi f f g fi m g fUNITED STATES PATENTS g 0 e "1? 1 6 1.257.206 2/1919 P61666611 296/78 A1.319.479 10/1919 Lloyd 296/ 2 Claims, 9 Drawmg Flgures 2.475.775 7/1949Boren 5/93 R BABY CARRIAGE This application is a divisional applicationof my copending application Ser. No. 188,846 filed on Oct. 13, 1971,which issued as US. Pat. No. 3,799,606 on Mar. 26, I974.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION The invention relates to baby carriages ingeneral and more particularly to perambulators having a frame to whichthere is, or can be, attached a body comprising both see-through andopaque walls and a bottom, especially in the form of a trough, box,carrying bag or the like, with an optionally detachable hood. The termperambulator or, for short, pram as used herein includes baby carriagesof all sorts, i.e. not only those having a box-shaped body, tub, trough,box, carrying bag or the like, but also strollers, baby strollers, toyprams, convertibles, etc.

Heretofore, baby carriages of this type have been proposed comprising abody either with windows at the side or in the part facing the directionof movement, the windows being made of transparent weather-resistantmaterial, e.g. of transparent plastics.

Prams having see-through portions in their walls enable the infant tolie in a face-down position which has considerable medical advantagesover the face-up position. However, conventional baby carriages withseethrough parts are inconvenient in several respects. For example, eventhough the pram body be substantially transparent at least at its frontend, there is usually a frame or other opaque portion impeding free viewof the infant when he raises his head, as babies do with pleasurealready in their first months of life. This obstruction to view alsoexists where the whole body and- /or the hood are made of transparentmaterial. Moreover, it was, experienced that mothers and nurses alikeare opposed to completely transparent prams because any disorder,however temporary, will be conspicuously apparent ifthe whole interiorof the body including bed or mattress, pillows, covers, food containers,diapers, babycare means and the like can be seen from all sides. 1

Therefore, the inventor developed a baby carriage body disclosed in US.Pat. No. 3,712,636, said body being elevated at one of its ends andcomprising, both. in the side walls and in the end wall, windows whichextend over substantially the whole height of the end wall and, at leastnear saidend wall, above the edge of the non-elevated parts of thevbody. Such a pram will satisfy all practical requirements, includingthose related to the face-down position of the infant. Aside from itsgeneral utility, however, it is to be noted that manufacturing a babycarriage of this type is somewhat cumbersome and expensive. In addition,attaching light screens may bring about problems.

OBJECTS or THE INVENTION I It is thus an important object of theinvention to eliminate the drawbacks of the prior art and to provide aperamulator requiring a minimum of effort regarding both.constructionand manufacture and permitting of optimum versatility.

It is a further object of the invention to provide an improved babycarriage of a simple, yet sturdy design suitable especially for rearingbabies in a face-down position.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The invention provides in a permabulator havinga frame and a body with seethrough and opaque walls and a bottom, andfurther having an optionally dctachable hood, the improvement comprisingan elevated body end with front and side wall windows which extend oversubstantially the whole height of said body end and, at least adjacentsaid front wall, extend both above and below the edge of thenon-elevated parts of the body, which comprises a trough made fromtransparent plastics whose upper edge is reinforced and furthercomprises a window screening as well as means for attaching saidscreening to the perambulator.

When made to include, at least adjacent said end wall, the upper edgethereof, the windows may extend without opaque portions up to the upperedge of the body so that the latter can, if desired, be manufactured inone piece. At least at the upper edge, which is reinforced by crimping,folding, flanging, bracing or the like, such windows need not be bondedor otherwise secured to the body material; it is therefore possible todispense with joints that would be exposed to considerable stresses.Rather than integrally, the body may also be made of several pieces orparts and may include a detachable see-through portion which maycomprise one of the body ends.

The design according to the invention greatly lowers manufacturing cost,since permanent connections between different structural materials areavoided or reduced to a minimum. By this arrangement the lifetime of thepram is also considerably increased. The detachable screens can bemounted later if and when needed, and attached to the body or to thehood at various places, either inside or outside or at an edge.

In a preferred embodiment of the invention, the screen overlaps at leastpart of the body at its upper edge. Even a temporary attachment willthus be more lasting. Attachment of the screen by means of clipfasteners is advantageous for both manufacture and use, and zipfasteners, adhesive bands or any other kind of detachable fasteningmeans are also suitable. It is possible to provide several contiguousscreens which can induvidually be mounted and detached.

According to another feature of the invention, the body may consist of atrough made in a single piece from a transparent foil, for example, by adeep-drawing process. Such processes are disclosed, for example, inKunststofftechnisches Woerterbuck, A. M. Wittfoht, Volume 4, CarlI-Ianser Verlag, Munich, 1962, pages 427-433. A reduction in productioncost can also be achieved by injection moulding or blowing a trough orplastics material. In all these cases it is not difficult to provide theupper edge with a crimped edge similar to baby bath tubs.

Another important and independent feature of the invention consists inthat in a pram whose body and/or hood having opaque portions, the bodyis lower, or can be lowered, at least in the opaque portions of its endpart provided with a window, than are the remaining parts of the body.The windows may be part of a body portion that can be mounted on thelower body end or be detached therefrom. Such a body portion may be thehood if suitably shaped, and it may be attached and- /or fixed to eitherbody end. This design, too, leads to considerable economies inmanufacture due to the fact that less material and fewer connectionswill be required.

The invention further provides means to lower or to detach either thetransparent and/or the opaque parts of the body end, e.g. by means of afolding or tilting mechanism or a pneumatic piston device, preferablydisposed inside a double wall.

Moreover, the body may have inflatable walls. in particular with weldedfoils of plastics material and pro: vided with a valve. Instead thereof,or in addition, the walls of the body may be made from foamed plasticsor contain layers of foamed plastics.

By another advantageous embodiment of the inven tion opaque surfaces ofthe lowerable or collapsible hood serve as window screens. This designdoes away with additional parts which are apt to be inconvenient tostore or to get lost.

SHORT FIGURE DESCRIPTION Other objects, features, details and advantagesof the invention will become apparent from the following de-. scriptionof preferred embodiments illustrated in the drawings, wherein variouscommonly used pram parts are not shown since they are not subject of thepresent invention.

FIGS. 1 to 7 are simplified side elevations of seven embodiments of theinvention;

FIG. 8 is a section along line VIIIVIII of FIG. 7; and

FIG. 9 is a corresponding section through a pram according to FIG. 6.

PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS In the pram shown in FIG. 1 the body 1 which canbe connected to the frame (not represented) for example by rails, has atone of its ends 2 a downwardly sloping upper edge 3. The body 1 ispreferably a trough made in one piece, e.g. by deep-drawing from a clearor transparent foil of plastics material. The windows 5 extend directly,i.e., without interruption, up to the upper edge 3 and include thelatter without intervening opaque portions. The hood 7 attached to thebody 1 can be tilted downwards about pivots and is held in its upperposition by locking means (not shown). The folded-down position is shownin dotted lines in FIG. 1 from which it is seen that the lower parts ofthe hood 7, whose walls are preferably opaque, serve as screens orsunshade for at least a part of the non-elevated end 2 of the body. Ifdesired, further screens (not shown) may be inserted into the body 1and/or attached thereto by means of clip fasteners 9 or by any otherfixing means such as zip fasteners, adhesive bands or the like.

In the embodiment according to FIG. 2 the body 1 has at its end 2 anelevated cockpit with windows 5 which are transparent up the upper edge3. If desired, this cockpit may form a detachable unit. The remaininglateral parts 4 of the body 1 are opaque. When the hood 7 is attached tothe body, it acts as a screen for the windows 5 of the cockpit. It isseen that the opaque wall parts 4 are lower at the end 2 bearing thewindows 5 than at the remaining portions 14.

A similar design is shown in FIG. 3. A cockpit whose windows 5 alsoextend up to the rising upper edge 3 is shown in dotted lines. Asindicated by these dotted lines, the cockpit may be designed as a rigidtransparent enclosure whose top is horizontal and has no frame partswhile the upper edges of the remaining parts 14 of the body slopedownwards. When the hood 7 is mounted on to the body 1, its walls(preferably opaque in this embodiment) cover the windows 5 completely.

opaque part. 14 of the body. The screens for the win dows may again beformed by the hood 7, but in addition, clip fasteners 9 are provided forattaching, e.g. on the inner side, a detachable lining, flap or thelike.

The body 1 of the pram shown in FIG. 5 includes a section 12 with opaquewalls andmade integrally in its upper part with windows 5. The section12 can be lowered and raised, e.g. by sliding along guides (not 7shown), and notches may be provided for locking. engagement at thedesired level. The guides of the section 12 may, for example, be of thetelescope rod-and-tube type, with or without springs. The remainingparts of the pram may be designed similar to the other embodiments, andthe hood 7 may, contrary to FIGS, be similar to that shown in FIGS. 1 to4, so that it forms a screen for the windows 5 of the cockpit of thebody.

The body shown in FIG. 6 is made in one piece from a transparent,preferably completely clear plastics rnaterial. Its upper edge has arounded bead 6 engaged by screens 10 or 10' to be buttoned on. Thescreens may be cut in such a manner tnat they are not only contiguousbut overlap in the middle of the body,.as indicated" by dotted lines. l

The pram of FIG. 7 is similar in its function to that of FIG. 5.Howeventhe body 1 has at its upper edge a frame 11 which may be of wood,plastics or the like, and is secured to the walls of the body 1. As seenfrom FIG. 8, the body may have double-walls 13 which may serve toreceive a mechanism for guiding the vertically movable section 12 at theelevated end 2 and to cover this mechanism both inside and outside. Sucha mecha-,

nism may be designed in a conventional manner, e.g. using articulatedlevers, guide rods, lazy tongs or the like. The movable section 12 isagain topped by a cockpit with windows 5 which can be wholly or partlycov- I ered with screens fixed by clip fasteners 9. The hood 7" itselfmay be designed to largely serve as a screen, for

example, allowing to be tilted downwards muchas in the pram according toFIG. 1.

The pram body 1 shown in FIG. 9 is a double-walled trough with crimpedor rounded edges 6 and a foamplastics filling 16 between the doublewall. This filling serves both for supporting the two walls and forstiffening the whole trough. The filling 16 can be produced by foamingsynthetic resins in situ within the walls. It also walls. inflatablewalls of this kind may, of course, be i made from pliable foils and bothopaque portions and partially or completely transparent windows maybeconstituted in this manner.

In all the embodiments of the invention the windows may be eithercolourless or tinted expecially with .colour shades providing protectionagainst sunlight, and

the screens may be opaque or equally dyed as required, I

for example using customary sunlight protection colouring. Any suitablematerial may be used for the win dows such as transparent sheet materialof acrylic resin, celluloid, glass, compound glass, hard or pliableplastics and the like.

Although specific examples have been described, it is to be understoodthat the invention is intended to cover all equivalents andmodifications within the scope of the appended claims since thearrangements and types of structural components utilized within thisinvention may be subjected to numerous variations familiar in the art.

i claim:

1. In a baby carriage of the type having a body adapted to be supportedon a wheeled carrier having a handle, wherein said body has a bottom andhead, side and foot walls defining a cradle for accommodating a baby inbelly-down position with its head adjacent said head wall; theimprovement wherein said body is a unitary trough of transparentmaterial, said transparent material extending to the upper edge of saidbody without intervening opaque portions, said body having a curved endcarrying adjustable opaque covering means mounted on said body forselectively screening portions of said transparent body at said curvedend thereof, said opaque covering means comprising an opaque screeninghood pivotally and removably affixed to said body at the upper edgethereof to cover selected portions of said body by moving said screeninghood to a selected pivoted position around said curved end.

2. The baby carriage of claim 1, wherein the upper edge of one end ofsaid body extends upwardly beyond the upper edge of the other end ofsaid body, thereby forming a cockpit at said one end of said body.

1. In a baby carriage of the type having a body adapted to be supportedon a wheeled carrier having a handle, wherein said body has a bottom andhead, side and foot walls defining a cradle for accommodating a baby inbelly-down position with its head adjacent said head wall; theimprovement wherein said body is a unitary trough of transparentmaterial, said transparent material extending to the upper edge of saidbody without intervening opaque portions, said body having a curved endcarrying adjustable opaque covering means mounted on said body forselectively screening portions of said transparent body at said curvedend thereof, said opaque covering means comprising an opaque screeninghood pivotally and removably affixed to said body at the upper edgethereof to cover selected portions of said body by moving said screeninghood to a selected pivoted position around said curved end.
 2. The babycarriage of claim 1, wherein the upper edge of one end of said bodyextends upwardly beyond the upper edge of the other end of said body,thereby forming a cockpit at said one end of said body.